"I did not want to give the impresison that there was a lot of recogizabable similarity between the Estern Orthodox and NO services, bt there are many recognizable elements between the Tridentine and EO servcies."
This goes without saying. In the two Divine Liturgies I've seen (one EO, one EC) I never expected the priest to be wearing a fiddleback and biretta.
"I am particularly interested in reading your link on Pope Paul VI because I would imagine most non-Catholics do not know much about what transpired at the Vatican II. All we can see are the effects of it, not whether they are the intended changes or the unintended ones."
The Council met over the course of a couple of years, with a number of sessions, where the bishops produced 16 major documents: now we have aging, bizarre, upper-middle class women prancing around the altars in tutus; priests preaching all sorts of drivel from the pulpits; and nuns running about in polyester pants-suits colored in hues not found on God's green Earth. After all that work by the bishops, this is the best we came up with? Let alone non-Catholics, I think most Catholics don't even know what it was about. I have to do far more reading, delving into it, to see what it's all about.
"Of course, the Tridentine Mass was not the Mass served in Florence, two hundred years prior, or the Mass served in the first millennium, so even the Tridentine Mass was something "new" at one time before it became a tradition."
There was a book written 2 years ago "The Organic Development of the Liturgy" by one Dom Alcuin Reid, OSB; it's on my wish-list, as it tracks the Roman Mass from its origins up to the eve of V2. It tracks, as you mention, the formation and the rise to prominence of the Roman Mass--here's an interesting little tidbit on the latter: even before Trent the Mass across Europe became a lot more standardized, because the Franciscans would bring the Roman Mass with them as they crossed Western Europe and it was often adopted by local churches. This of course is only a partial reason for the near universal use of the Roman Mass in the Latin Church.
"But my point is: why change?"
Beats me. There were many things that needed reform prior to V2; there are many things now needing reform. The desire of the Fathers to speak with new vigor to the modern world was all well and good; however, it was not necessary, strictly speaking to rewrite, and remove, the greatest treasure of the Church, the centuries old Mass, from plain view. Perhaps scholars (though not bad in and of themselves), and not saints were in charge of liturgical reform. I think that Western Christians ought to pay much more attention to the way the Orthodox jealously defend the tradition of their Liturgies.
Hopefully, Benedict will facilitate the more liberal use of the Tridentine Mass, and the reform of the NO into a line more in keeping with the historical voice of Latin Christianity.
I have to admit, I had to look up the words. I have never heard of an Orthodox priest wearing a biretta, and fiddleback just doesn't yield anything religious in my search. Maybe you can enlighten me.
Whatever changes are needed, I hope the Catholics do what the Orthodox do when faced with such dilemma: look back! We always revert to patristic teahcings and traditions. Pope Benedict XVI seems to be one such Christian who seeks solutions in patristic traditions.
My personal impression is that somehow the Vatican II promoted changes that at least externally approached the Protestants, perhaps to make Catholicism appear more agreeable to them.
I have to admit, I had to look up the words. I have never heard of an Orthodox priest wearing a biretta, and fiddleback just doesn't yield anything religious in my search. Maybe you can enlighten me.
Whatever changes are needed, I hope the Catholics do what the Orthodox do when faced with such dilemma: look back! We always revert to patristic teahcings and traditions. Pope Benedict XVI seems to be one such Christian who seeks solutions in patristic traditions.
My personal impression is that somehow the Vatican II promoted changes that at least externally approached the Protestants, perhaps to make Catholicism appear more agreeable to them.